Julio Romero Aguero

Presentations: 

Grid Modernization and Smart Distribution Systems

This tutorial (or presentation) will provide an overview of grid modernization activities and smart distribution systems around the world, and discuss objectives, modern equipment, technologies, leading industry practices, solutions and methodologies used by the electric power industry to modernize distribution grids. This tutorial will bring together all these aspects in a cohesive and holistic description that would allow attendees to understand this rapidly evolving and increasingly complex area. This tutorial will address the following aspects:

1. Objectives: industry trends, drivers, justification and need for distribution grid modernization, including efficiency improvement, climate change, emissions reductions, evolving customer patterns, and resiliency/reliability improvement.
2. Modern equipment, technologies, and solutions: microprocessor-based relays, reclosers and switches; Distributed Energy Resources (DER) including Distributed Generation (DG), Distributed Energy Storage (DES) and microgrids; electric transportation; advanced controllers and sensors (e.g., distribution PMUs); power electronics-based distribution equipment (distribution class STATCOMs, etc.); Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI); Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS); Outage Management Systems (OMS); and DER management Systems (DERMS); telecommunications technologies (optic fiber, meshed radio, etc.), and grid edge devices and home automation systems.
3. Modern methodologies: modern planning, operations and engineering analysis for power distribution systems, including spatial load forecasting; predictive reliability analysis; DER integration; hosting capacity analysis; Non-Wires Alternatives (NWA); advanced distribution automation (Fault Location, Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR), Volt-Var optimization (VVO), etc.); value of DER and value of the grid, real-time monitoring, protection, automation, control, and operations; and grid analytics.
4. Business, regulatory and policy trends: benefit-cost analyses and business case development for deployment of grid modernization solutions, technology roadmap and strategy development, etc.
5. Case studies: examples of grid modernization solutions for real-life power distribution systems.

This can be either a 1-hour presentation or a 4-hr tutorial by Dr. Julio Romero Agüero (contents can be summarized to accommodate time availability). The presentation is targeted to distribution engineers, engineering managers, distribution planners, planning managers, operations engineers, and operations managers.

Distribution Reliability and Resiliency Assessment and Improvement

This tutorial (or presentation) will provide a review of leading industry practices, standards and methodologies for evaluation and improvement of reliability and resiliency for modern and future power distribution systems, including the following aspects:

1. Review of IEEE 1366-2012 Standard: including key definitions (outage, interruption, major event days, failure rates; mean-times-to-repair; etc.); distribution reliability indices (SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIDI, MAIFI, CEMI, etc.); major event exclusion methodology (2.5 beta method); resiliency, resiliency metrics, and application examples.
2. Classic and modern distribution reliability and resiliency improvement practices: including overcurrent protection philosophies (fuse saving, fuse clearing); reclosing (single-phase reclosing/lockout, three-phase reclosing/lockout, single-phase reclosing/three-phase lockout); distribution feeder automation (half-loop schemes, full-loop schemes, Fault Location, Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR), fault circuit indicators, and sensors); vegetation management; weather hardening; aging infrastructure replacement; outage management and restoration (fault location, upstream/downstream restoration); real-time monitoring, protection, automation, control, and operations; utility enterprise systems (SCADA, OMS and AMI); and DER applications (microgrids and NWA).
3. Distribution reliability and resiliency modeling and simulation: review of software tools for distribution reliability modeling and analysis (CYME, Synergi, etc.); historical data analysis; model calibration; predictive reliability modeling; parametric modeling; benefit-cost analysis and prioritization; and development of reliability and resiliency improvement roadmaps.
4. Case studies: examples of distribution reliability and resiliency improvement roadmaps for real-life power distribution systems.

This can be either a 1-hour presentation or 4-hour tutorial by Dr. Julio Romero Agüero (contents can be summarized to accommodate time availability). The presentation is targeted to reliability engineers, reliability managers, distribution engineers, engineering managers, distribution planners, planning managers, operations engineers, and operations managers.

Integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and Electric Transportation in Distribution Systems

This tutorial (or presentation) will provide a review of industry leading practices for integration of DER (DG, DES, microgrids, Virtual Power Plants (VPP), etc.) and electric vehicles in distribution systems, including the following aspects:

1. Review of DER and electric transportation technologies: including in front and behind-the-meter DG (conventional and inverter-based), DES (BESS), microgrids, community solar, and VPP; relevant standards (IEEE 1547, UL 1741, SAE J1772); Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS); metering and compensation approaches Net Energy Metering (NEM), Feed-in-Tariffs (FiT), and Power Purchase Agreements (PPA); electric vehicles (plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles), Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), and level 1, 2 and 3 charging stations.
2. Impacts of DG integration: including steady-state and dynamic/transient impacts such as voltage increase, voltage fluctuation, reverse power flow, line and equipment loading increase, losses increase, power factor modification, reactive power flow modification, operation increase of voltage control and regulation equipment (line voltage regulators, load tap changers, and capacitor banks) current/voltage imbalance increase, power quality impacts (Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) increase, flicker, etc.), and overcurrent/overvoltage protection issues (desensitization, reach reduction, sympathetic tripping, islanding and temporary overvoltage (TOV), etc.)
3. Impacts of EV integration: including line and equipment loading increase, low voltage violations, current/voltage imbalance, power factor modification, losses increase, load and power factor modification, transformer life-cycle impacts, etc.
4. Mitigation measures for DG and EV integration: including classic and smart grid solutions such as reconductoring, express/dedicated feeders, modification of settings and operation modes of voltage control and regulation equipment (line voltage regulators, load tap changers, capacitor banks), dynamic volt-Var control, active power curtailment, smart inverter functions (volt-Var, volt-Watt, voltage and frequency ride-through), applications of distribution class power electronics devices (STATCOMs, etc.), feeder reconfiguration, advanced protection solutions (e.g., Direct Transfer Trip (DTT), directional protection, etc.), etc.
5. Benefits of DER and EV integration: including capacity/investment deferral, voltage/frequency regulation and reactive power support, efficiency improvement, reliability/resiliency improvement, emissions reduction, energy arbitrage, etc.
6. Industry trends: DER hosting capacity, NWA, value of DER and value of the grid,
   This can be either an 8 or 4-hour tutorial or a 1-hour talk by Dr. Julio Romero Agüero (contents can be summarized to accommodate time availability). The course is targeted to reliability engineers, reliability managers, distribution engineers, engineering managers, distribution planners, planning managers, operations engineers, and operations managers.

This can be either a 1-hour presentation or a 4-hr tutorial by Dr. Julio Romero Agüero (contents can be summarized to accommodate time availability). The presentation is targeted to distribution engineers, engineering managers, DER engineering managers, distribution planners, planning managers, operations engineers, and operations managers.